I've thought about this with a lot of major sports...maybe players should band together and go on strike? What are the owners going to do, play part time seasons with scab players in front of no crowds with a large section of fans angry alongside the players?

I was a huge marlins fan in those days because I loved the jerseys and so adopted them as my NL team. I remember watching both world series with my mom who made us chocolate shakes for each game.
Nowadays we dont talk, haven't actually seen her for a year or so...

Asticky wicket(orstickydog, or glue pot) is a metaphor used to describe a difficult circumstance. It originated as a term for difficult circumstances in the sport of cricket, caused by a damp and soft pitch.

Tecmo Super Bowl (NES): The first game I remember playing in my life. I remember coming home from sledding one night and going to my room to play and my hands being so cold I couldn't properly hold the controller/play. I spent countless hours playing it on my own and with my dad. We would put together tournaments and play against each other (if both of your teams advanced to play one another you got to pick and had to give the other team to the other person; no one was allowed to pick the 49ers in most tournaments because they were OP. One of my favorite gaming memories is when I was down 35-38 against my dad - I was the Houston Oilers and I think he was the Rams. I went to kick a 45ish yard Field Goal to tie it except...he freaking blocked it...BUT, I recovered the fumble with my kicker and took it to the house to win. We laughed a lot that day - now we don't talk anymore.
The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time (Nintendo64): I bought the Gold Edition from a Game Tester whose mom worked with mine at the time. I spent a long time beating the game on my own (Yes, I beat the water temple without help thank you very much. My friends would come over and we'd take turns playing. My dad, even though he was a strictly sports gamer, would play the fishing minigame. At first I would have to get him there, then later he figured it out enough on his own. The story, characters, and setting are so engrossing and the gameplay so much fun. I would later get the strategy guide for Christmas and go back to get all the hearts and stuff I missed on my own.
Romance of the Three Kingdoms VII (PS2): I was a huge Dynasty Warriors fan and my buddy got this game and I fell in love with it. My mom took me to Mankato (Hour from our house) and we looked all afternoon to find it only to come up short...we came home and, despondent and desperate, went to our local entertainment store. Lo and freaking behold - they had a copy. I stayed up until 4:00 am playing that night. I played that (and the later iterations) for a disgusting amount of hours - the replayability is insane and it's just a ton of fun. I think ROTK IX was my favorite of all time but 7 was my introduction to the series.
Wrestlemania 2000 (Nintendo64): Another game I poured time into - this was about my high water mark as a wrestling fan for several years. I loved that you could make your own titles and custom wrestlers. I would put together pay per views and tournaments and let them run while I did homework and then mark the results down in a notebook. I made all of Team Canada for awhile I do remember. I also made myself haha. I was still pretty convinced wrestling was real in those days so it's ironic to look back and think about how much I enjoyed booking wrestling without really knowing what I was doing. I also would ran a wrestling league in my notebook during study hall. I long for those days and EWR/TEW/Fire Pro are ways I am trying to recapture that innocent childhood feeling.
Final Fantasy IV (Super Nintendo): I never owned a PS2 but I did learn about emulators and when I went to my aunt's for a few weeks in the summer I took a ton of hard disks and made myself an emulator/rom collection. Amongst those games was Final Fantasy IV (or 2 as it was called then). I had played FF1 years earlier, and loved it, but I wasn't very good at the game because it was my first RPG. FFIV/2 was really the first one that I understood and played (mostly) through. I loved the gameplay concept and the story and world; I would go on to play many more RPGs in my life so far. Ironically, while this is definitely an influential game I've never actually beaten it! I might have to remedy that sometime soonish.